During the recent Lockdown, British Rowing ran a series of LockdownWebinars. One of these was Technical Spotlight: The Sculling Frontend. This was run by Mark Wilkinson and James Loveday who, between them, won the last 3 Fawley Cup Finals at Henley (for schoolboy Quads).
The webinar is quite technical, and detailed, as it’s aimed at coaches, (rather than at aspiring scullers) but Mark is, in my opinion, brilliant, not only in his understanding and explanation of the key concepts, but also in his description of how you turn a group of J14/J15 “average learners” into an outstanding Henley winning quad in a few seasons.
The presentation and 1 hour video is available on youtube, but here’s my attempt to translate a few of their slides on Front-end Sculling for anyone wanting to develop their understanding, and their sculling skills.
You need to have a picture in your head of the unified model … what does it look like, feel like? The ‘relaxed hand’ and subtle grip is crucial in order to build the ‘wall of water’ (see later). Also the conditioning necessary to ‘load’ the connection to the water, and the ability to hold this position using the core. ‘Hinging’ from the hips, and executing a ‘quiet catch’ (that will allow the acceleration of the blade through the drive phase)Rather than just thinking about ‘the catch’ its necessary to think about dealing with the ‘change in direction’ at the front end. Mark uses some analogies – the swimming pool turn (off a solid wall), the way that a bike tyre (or your foot when running) needs to grip the tarmac before propelling you forward. And the consequence if you don’t achieve this ‘grip’ and propel sequence? Of course in sculling the only way you achieve this is ..… by the way that you connect to, and ‘grip’ the water. This requires some skill: the blade dropping into the water at the perfect height and the catch-connect-drive sequence that allows you to build the ‘wall of water’ through to the finish. Think planting the blade in the water (or behind an imaginary post) and then driving the boat past that point.The way that you think about something makes a difference. On a stationary lake the boat is moving past the water. On fast-flowing water, with stream or tide, it appears more that the water is going past the boat. To be effective, particularly sculling against a fast stream, what do you need to do? Connect quickly and effectively at full compression, and at furthest point of reach (so that you don’t ‘miss’ any water and to make progress in these tough conditions) That skill is important in all conditions. Think the water is disappearing away from the boat!At last we can talk about the catch itself. Mark describes ‘clockface’ rowing or hooking the water. Others talk about the blade moving ‘bow-ward and downward in a curvilinear motion’. This make sense if you think about fast flowing water disappearing away from you. To achieve this the hands need to rise slightly so that the blades drop in from close to the water. And what happens at the handle is amplified at the blade so you only need a slight rise from the handsLets get out of the boat and onto the ergo for a moment. How can you re-inforce good habits whilst slogging away on the ergo? 1. By maintaining that consistent head/seat/hands ‘triangle’ whilst ‘floating into the catch’. 2. By practising that clock-face action at the catch with a slight rise of the hands. Although it’s not necessary on the ergo it will drill and re-inforce the correct technique for the boat.And finally you need to understand the ‘linked’ system and what this means for the timing of the entry. No matter how quickly, the seat will STOP, before changing direction. BUT, when the wheels stop, the hands MUST keep moving, if only for a split second. Many novices associate the seat stopping with the hands stopping. This can result in ‘rowing the blade in’ (pushing off the foot stretcher with the blade still in the air). Or the blade ‘stalling’ and slicing vertically into the water. The hands must keep moving towards the stern and hook the water. As you ‘grip’ the water and push off the footplate, the hands are ‘left behind’ creating the feeling of hanging off the handles, and the suspension for the drive.
Thanks to Mark and James for these slides and concepts of Front-end sculling. Mark goes on to talk about ‘the reality of how you get that into the athlete’. Mark’s ‘Go to’ front-end drills help to make these subtle skills possible (with a “relentless” focus!)
